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Joshua Is Born
Josh is born to a mother with a substance abuse disordered. Joshua was born addicted to opiates. He was placed in a foster home while his mother went to treatment. Josh lived with different caretakers outside his home while his mother worked odd jobs and tried to meet her OCS obligations. This is the first stage of life: the developmental challenge of trust versus mistrust. Josh's rough start at life and his mom's absence hindered their ability to build a solid bond. -
Joshua Loses is Mother
Josh's mother dies of an overdose. Most of Josh's childhood has been focused on his mom and her disease. Josh rarely had time to develop his own sense of identity. After her death, Josh is left with without a mother and without his sense of identity. This is the fifth stage, adolescence: crisis of identity versus identity confusion. Since Josh was never able to develop his own personality outside of his circumstances he is left with identity confusion. -
Joshua Marries Chaos
Josh is unable to move past the betrayal and past relationships. He partners with the only consistent thing in his life: poverty, chaos, and drugs. He isolates himself and forms a deep relationship with illicit drugs rather than risking an intimate relationship with a stable person. In the sixth stage, intimacy vs. isolation, Josh's inability to trust and his identity crisis from his adolescence make the perfect ingredients for a final destination of isolation.
